Haven't updated in awhile, so I thought I'd throw some doodles up here for a couple of quick laughs.

Hey y'all. I only have a couple of sketches to update this time, but I'm still working on more as we speak. I'm also doing some artwork for the company I work for, Storage West, so things are a li'l hectic over here.

Also, if anyone knows an easy method for drawing a gorilla body, gimme a holler. :)

Hey y'all.

I wanna thank all of y'all who still take a peek over here in my section of the cactus patch. I've seen the comments that you guys have left, and while I haven't been able to respond to them, it's nice to know that you still find my stuff entertaining to view...despite the dearth of updates.

Me an' my family have encountered some difficulties as of late, and we've had to make certain lifestyle changes. Among these is the acquisition of a new place to call home, so all our effort has been focused in that direction.

I'm still keeping hope, though, and have some fairly good ideas on the back burner for now. In the meantime, take a gander at some of these folks' sites:

http://www.bigheadpress.com/otr
http://locus.keenspot.com/
http://www.moderntales.com/comics/PS2.php

Lots of good stuff at these sites.

Anyhow, thanks for taking a sec to pore over this li'l blurb. Y'all keep yer ears on, over.

I saw this on the pages of the other fine folks here and it just seemed to grab my attention. So here we go...

1 – Do you and your "fursona" look alike?
Meh. Similar. I definitely gave him a better build than i currently have...and possibly more hair, but i suppose similar. As similar as two different species can be, I guess.

2 – Do you and your "fursona" share attires?
yup: glasses, jeans, leather vest, glasses, & wristbands all accounted for. Although I generally go for more plain t-shirts than ones with any kind of print on them.

3 – Do you share the same sexuality as your fursona?
Yup. Paulie & I both have a taste for a well-figured woman: not thin, not fat, and enough curves to warrant a caution sign. Spectacled redheads are a DEFINITE plus.

4 – If you hadn’t already made your fursona look like you, if you would to change how he/she looked like to make him/her look more like you, how would you think he/she would look like?
Look more like me? Hmm...I'd probably have to change his species to a cat, probably some kind of black mutt-cat, and make him not nearly as muscular.

5 – Did you work hard to develop your fursona? What is the (brief) history of your fursona?
I wouldn't say I "worked hard" to develop him, but I would definitely say I put a lot of thought into it. I did a li'l research on animals that I liked or felt I resembled or emulated in some fashion, and once I found the Black Bear, things just started clicking: they're very curious, have poor close-up vision (I'm quite nearsighted), and are easily startled (when I'm concentrating on something, it's pretty much a "tunnel-vision" sort of thing; I don't really pay attention to anything else. It's been a favorite gag of my friends to come up behind me like that and scare the bejeebers out of me).
As far as a history goes, the basic rundown was that he and his brothers and sisters escaped emotionally & sexually abusive parents, got adopted by a large family of traditionally-valued Mexican Wolves, and things just progressed from there. He has a hard time getting romantically involved with females and tends to be a "lone wolf", so to speak, with a small circle of trusted friends.

6 – Do you and your fursona share relationship status?
Single? Yes. Clueless about women? Frequently. I'd have to say that he and I share a sense of romantic dedication when contemplating a relationship.

7 – Do you find yourself jealous or upset if you get paired with someone you don’t like or your partner does?
I can't say that there's anyone here that I really dislike, so I can't say at this time.

8 – How would you like your character not to be used?
That's a tough one. He's definitely a teddy bear at heart, so if he's to be depicted doing anything, I'd have to say no cruelty, no stroke pics, no vore/inflation/hyper/whatelsehaveyou. More "slice-'o-life" stuff, maybe (maybe!) some romantic stuff. Silliness & satire are totally cool.

9 – What’s your fursona’s specialty?
Like what, a profession? I'd say construction. Y'know, handyman stuff. Aside from that, I'd say fishing, drawing, & tabletop RPG's (yes, Paulie is a gaming geek, mostly D&D and Classic Marvel Superheroes. Not really a video-gamer).

10 – At a score of 1-10 how much are you and your fursona alike?
Perhaps a 7 out of 10.


Well, there ya go. I thought this was kinda fun, and it got me to thinking, which is always worthwile. I'm still in the process of clearing away all the projects in front of me, and I've got some Paulie pics in the works, so thanks for swingin' by.

This is Poppa Bear, backin' out. Y'all keep yer ears on, over. :)

Hey y'all. No dual POV tonight.



I'm in a sober humor.

I've been officially hired by this storage company that I've been temp-ing for over the last couple of months, so that's cool. I like the company a lot.



But that's not what's rattling around in my head tonight.

On one of the support calls, I found out that the property manager of one of the company's stores out west is in the hospital again tonight. She's got heart blockages—second time in 2 weeks. More stents. Plus, she's around 115 pounds overweight. I'm told she looks a lot like Mamma Cass. It's bad enough that they've notified her next-of-kin.

I spent the last hour of work tonight thinking about that. And thinking about the fact that, while I'm around 6'2" with a large frame, I'm around 350 pounds. I'm told I don't look that heavy, and I'd have to agree. I don't. Yet.

I'm thinking about the fact that I had about 3 double burgers & 2 sodas for lunch. I'm thinking about the fact that pants with a 50" waist are too tight for me. I'm thinking about how I used to laugh at the Goofy cartoon about overeating & how the main character couldn't see his own feet...and then I wonder with sobering shock when the last time I've seen MY OWN feet when I looked down.

I sit here, with Tom Waits crooning through "Closing Time", a song eminently appropriate for stripping away one's rationalizations, trying to admit to myself...the fact that I am obese.



OBESE.

Damn. It's like a five-letter piece of profanity. I am obese. I am at least a hundred pounds overweight. I can't even bend over to tie my own work boots.

It's disgusting to think that something as mundane as fat is dangerously hampering my quality of life. And it's even more disgusting because I'm the one who let all that fat get there. This is what over 10 years of bad eating habits will get you. There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby.

I don't want to be that woman, lying in an ICU ward somewhere, barely able to comprehend what's going on around me as they stick probes & instruments into my arteries to try to save me from the consequences of my own lifestyle. I don't want to be one of these guys who is snuffed out by a heart attack at 35. I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving myself insulin shots in my stomach because I contracted diabetes.



It's all got to change. Today. Now. It HAS to.

In the morning when I wake up, I'm going to begin walking & doing some kind of exercise 7 days a week. Push-ups, crunches, bent over rowing, things like that. I know I won't be able to do a whole lot, but I've got to start somewhere. And I've got to start making it a regular habit. As regular as grabbing four cheap-ass McDonald's cheeseburgers for lunch has been.

I'm afraid; I'll admit it. I've spent over 10 years being more-or-less complacent-ish, and being comfortable with it. Willpower is going to be the sticking point, I guess; making a change in my lifestyle is easy. Sticking to it, and staying optimistic about it, will be the hard part.

If any of you out there have suggestions to stifle the siren song of a Meatball Marinara Submarino, or exercises that will help burn off this gutzilla of mine, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Wish me luck.

Merry Belated Christmahanukwanzaka, everyone. No dual POV this time.

Well, after getting fired from GoDaddy, I finally have a temp-to-hire job. Same general type of work, though: I'm working in a call center for a personal storage chain. Amazingly enough, the call frequency is so comparatively low, I have time to get caught up on a lot of things, like gaming, drawing, reading, etc, and do a good job at the same time! How crazy is that??

I have to be careful, though, and not let all the time on my hands go to my head. I still need to do the job well enough to actually get hired by the place. The people there are really friendly and way cool.

I'm still trying to get a hold of my brother-in-law for those Halloween pics. We actually managed to reduce four, count 'em, FOUR people to the fetal position with fear! This was our 3rd year, we set a group standard with those four, and some of the folks who went through said ours was even better than some of the local professionally done haunted houses!!

(grins broadly) We SO rock at Halloween.

"Jeeminy Fuckin' Christmas, it sucks t'be out of a job! But I s'pose it gives me time t'concentrate on fixin' an' cleanin' stuff up outside'a work."

*snickers*

"'Course, it also gives me an' my buds a chance t'refine our Trick-or-Treat Gauntlet this year. When these kids come by to get their candy, they ain't gonna know what hit 'em! Haw!"

*******

Yes. My friends and I put on a Trick-or-Treat Gauntlet for the neighborhood kids. And yes, our aim is mostly twofold: (1) to have fun and give the kids a fun time, and (2) to scare the shit out of everyone and reduce at least one person to the fetal position. >:)

This'll be our 3rd year doing this now, and I think we've outdone ourselves this year. We've managed to get two more people in on the show, and our props this year are numerous and bloody. Once again, I'll be wielding my trusty maul made from a railroad tie, my brother-in-law will have his straight jacket, and our mutual friend will break out his full body costume with the glowing red eyes.

Oh yeah, I forgot; our other mutual friend will once again break out his bloody wedding dress, gas mask, and chainsaw. >:) The kids REEEALLY love him! No lie! We've had soccer moms ask him to pose with their li'l Disney Princesses & Power Rangers.

It's sick, twisted fun, and I'll see if I can get a few sketches of the whole thing to post. Happy Halloween, y'all!

Oh, yeah! found this quirky guy rappin' about Star Wars, computers, and goth girls. Check him out.
http://www.myspace.com/mcfrontalott

Well, here I am, between jobs again.

I guess it takes a specific type of person to work in a call center. The work itself isn't that hard, and navigating around the software is pretty easy, but there's just something about keeping up with sales quotas & number of calls per day that rubbed me the wrong way.

I've got a lot of newfound respect for all the guys who do the inbound call centers & tech support stuff. Staying pleasant on the phone all day is DAMN TOUGH. Especially with all the dicks out there who don't follow instructions and then insist it's your fault when their shit is screwed up.

Anyhow, after 4 months of gradually becoming more miserable about the job, I got kind-of a left-handed gift: they fired me for not keeping up with the standards of calls per day and such. It's not like I wasn't trying; I would talk to other techs and see what they did, try to get some kind of strategy down to maximize phone useage, tips on how to sell & what to listen for – all of it. I got good enough to get within reach of those goals, but not hit 'em consistently.

So, here I am. Happier, but unemployed. At any rate, i've got a couple'a places to begin looking – maybe try to get on as a security guard or something.

By the way – kudos to you guys 'n gals out there who manage to hold down a full time job and submit here regularly.

Evenin' folks. Still no dual POV this time, but that's OK; Paulie's not partial to the darker things I'll put up from time to time.

Case in point: I've been sketching and working steadily on several things right now - a website for my friends' gaming campaigns, some City of Heroes art, and my most recent submission.

Ironically, I started sketching this marvelously malevolent fellow in church, of all places (casts brief glance toward new submission). I definitely plan on—pardon the pun—fleshing him out more in the near future.

In the meantime, I'm still around an' kickin'.

No dual POV again.

Damn. This better not become a habit...

Anywho, I'm done with my 3 weeks of training. I start my official schedule on Monday. Mon-Thu, 10 hours a day. And you know what?
I CAN handle being part of an inbound call center.
I CAN handle talking to customers on the phone for most of the day.
And since I have Fridays off, I can get down to more drawing. I just hafta get into the swing of it.

Anyhow, I better be hittin' the hay. But not before passing on to you all the hardcore, comedic metal stylings of some great local guys from Tempe, AZ: Psychostick...

...SO PUT ON YOUR THINKIN' CAPS AN' GET READY TO FUCK SHIT UP!!

www.myspace.com/psychostick

...My train-ing day is done, and I'm home-ward bo-ound.

—sung to the tune of "I Think We're Alone Now"

I finally have a job. And if I can survive 3 weeks of training and remember it all, it'll be a pretty kick-ass job.

I'll be working in a GoDaddy call center doing support & sales. This is something completely different than almost anything I've done in the past, and I'll admit: I'm a li'l bit intimidated. Of course, I'm also a li'l frazzled from the first day of training, so it could be just the exhaustion talking.

I'll have more on this later—when I can think. Until then, feast your ears on these aural gems from Th' Legendary Shack Shakers:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf.....endid=16295414

Okay, no dual POV for this one, guys.

This entry is just for some new music.
I was looking around for some decidedly evil-sounding circus or carnival music for inspiration for some future projects, and I happened upon THIS li'l gem:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/circuscontraption

Admittedly, the tracks here are just 2 minute samples, but I was aurally entranced. I'll swear it sounds sorta like Danny Elfman meets Tom Waits in a dark cabaret. I'm of the opinion that you guys should hear this stuff! "The Slaughter's Promenade" is already a fav:

Line them up, move them in,
It's time for killing to begin.
String them up and hose them down
As we watch the blood run to the ground.

Go listen to it now. You must. Go. Off with you.

"I know I ain't put up s'more stuff in the last couple'a weeks'r so, so I'm tryin' t'put pencil t'paper more often these days. Keep checkin' in on me, though! I'll have a whole batch'a new stuff fer y'all!
"In th' meantime, check out my new Dropkick Murphys CD! http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf.....iendid=3787627 It kicks some serious ass! Or if'n yer inta more of a homegrown sound, check out my Stoutpounder CD. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf.....endid=76515125 Good stuff either way."

*****

First off, I want to thank everyone who's come by my li'l plot of FA with comments, shouts, and all the fave's and watches. YOU GUYS ROCK.

Second, I am trying to get back in "the groove" of drawing on a regular basis again. After almost 4 years in 2 jobs where keeping a sketchpad nearby would be unfeasable (butcher block asst. & low volt electrician), it's kinda hard to find my rhythm and inspiration again, y'know? Combine that, brainstorming for an RPG group, and branching out into more anthro art to bring Paulie and his world to life, and i'm just a li'l busy.
Keep checking back, though! I'll be bringing more art your way, count on it!

Thirdly, in the majority of my dual POV journal posts (from Paulie and me, respectively) I'll try to bring you guys some of the music that gets me goin', or gives me inspiration for stuff, or just plain makes me feel good. Some of it is gonna be local (like Scotsdale AZ's Stoutpounder), and some of it is gonna be great semi-mainstream stuff (like DKM). If you guys have any suggestions for garage, rock, punk, metal, or anything kitchy and off-the-wall, gimme a shout an' I'll try to take a listen!

"Heyas folks. I got a new batch 'o stuff fer y'all to gander at. Be carefull, tho. I still got some boxes lyin' 'round an' wouldn't want any 'o y'all to trip'r nuthin'. I also got a fresh tub 'o worchestershire cheese dip, candied crickets, an' some Rootworm dip. Help yerself if'n you want.
"Oh, hey. If'n you wanna crank up the stereo, I got some Nunzilla in there. Cool kitchy punk rock, it is."

*****

Here you go folks! I started diggin' through my art morgue tonight and came up with some winners. Give 'em a look-see an' have fun.

Heya folks. No dual POV this time.

I'm pretty much gonna keep this one short an' sweet: I got laid off today. I've filed for unemployment and such, and now comes the long (at least, it seems like it!) process of job hunting in the current economy.
On the up-side, I might have s'more time to get some of my newer pieces done and posted.
I gotta say, though, the good Rev. Horton Heat summed up my feelings about this situation succinctly:

I lost my job for no reason or rhyme,
Guessin' that means it's martini time.

"Sorry I haven't posted more stuff up here. I'm still in th' process 'o unpackin'. Between work an' tryin' t'get my affairs in order, there's jus' not enough time in th' day. I did manage t'get a couple 'o pieces up fer y'all t'enjoy, though. An' feel free to have a listen t'my 'Kiss The Monkey' CD. Good 'alternative-garage-band' stuff."

*****

WOW! You guys really stay on top of things! I've posted 2 new pieces, 1 in the regular gallery & 1 in scraps, and I'm already seeing coments up! Ho-ly cats!
...I'm gonna hafta find more of my older stuff to post while i work on my newer projects...(starts digging)

Wow. (sniffs the air experimentally...)

New place. (looks around)

Kinda like the look of things here...lotsa space, pretty easy t'navigate...looks like a friendly neighbo—Good Holy Hell-In-A-Can! Are they doin' what I think they're doin'?? How the £#@& does that fit in there?!

Holy cats, this is gonna take some gettin' used to...

*****
Seriously tho, I hope to make a decent showing here. Gimme a holler if'n you're in the neighborhood, y'all.